Knaus BoxDrive 680 ME campervan

Base vehicle: Volkswagen Crafter Price from: £55,670 Berths: 2/3 Travel seats: 4 Length: 6.84m Width: 2.04m Height: 2.68m Gross weight: 3,500kg Payload: 375kg

This BoxDrive reveals its driver appeal straight away. With leather cab seats, eight-speed, fully automatic gearbox, and barely audible 175bhp engine, this van conversion benefits hugely from being based on the class-leading VW Crafter.

But it’s not a cheap option, costing nearly £70k as shown. That includes the Crafter Package (£3,230) of essential base vehicle spec, the BoxDrive Package (£1,610) including an electric step, radio cabling and rear speakers, CP-Plus control panel, Truma iNet system, winterised waste water tank, blackout Thermo curtains, the Styling package (£860) which adds LED headlights, 17in alloy wheels, etc, and the Media Van Package (£1,700) with rear view camera, digital radio, multifunctional steering wheel and sat-nav. Then the 175bhp engine upgrade adds another £1,600 and the automatic gearbox is a further £2,280.

This, then, is not your average van conversion. It’s 6.84m long, for a start, and has some great details, like the CampCo heated curtains in the cab to provide a thermal barrier between you and the cold outside.

Up front, there’s the usual half-dinette but the table is a neat ‘floating’ design with no leg to get in the way. Lighting includes a neat, black, lollipop-style, touch-on/touch-off reading light. Heating is by diesel-powered 6kW Truma Combi 6D.

The kitchen is fitted with a two-burner gas hob and a sink with a chopping board lid to add extra surface space. Beneath it are three generous drawers with soft-close mechanisms and there’s a fold-up worktop extension. The fridge is a 90-litre compressor model.

More unusual is the washroom. The circular shower tray sits under a removable duckboard in the middle of the floor between the living space and bedroom. The tray has four plugholes, so it will drain even when the campervan really isn’t level, and there are two semi-circular, interlocking, solid shower screens. To cover the toilet when you shower, you pull another concertina shower screen. As a result, you have a sizeable shower space but it cuts the bedroom off from the living space when in use.

There’s a Dometic cassette loo, too, but when you close off the space with the semi-circular shower screens, space is tight to sit on the toilet. The basin has two positions as it can be tucked away for more space.

The rear bed is arranged as a huge lengthways double with a cut-out in the middle, at the foot, to ease access. The offside is 2.04m long, the nearside 1.90m, while width is a generous 1.53m. Two more ‘lollipop’ reading lights are fitted here, as well as speakers linked to the entertainment system in the cab.

Under the bed are pull-out steps. You’ll need these when the bed is lifted up but the so-called ‘loft bed’ is too high (too close to the top lockers) to sleep on easily, although there’s hugely increased storage. You could load bikes and secure them to the floor using the anchor points, or, if you have a kayak, it would slide in through the rear doors, with the mesh divider positioned between the garage and living space to keep it secure.

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This certainly can’t be considered a cheap option, with a multitude of optional packs that you’ll surely want to add. But for the price tag the BoxDrive commands, you’ll get a classy-looking campervan based on the much-admired VW Crafter.